PR Week: 2006 the year in review

PR Week’s Robert Gray has an interesting round-up (paywall) of some of the year’s public relations events and landmarks. The article includes a significant amount about new and social media, in my humble opinion probably a bit more than it merits.

Social media highlights included:

01. Anyone who didn’t already have one started their own blog. In May, CIPR president Tony Bradley launched PRVoice (prvoice.typepad.com); in October, Fleishman-HillardUS produced the Out Front blog ‘dedicated to the idea that gay and lesbian communications and marketing is important, relevant and appropriate’.; Novell’s chief marketing officer John Dragoon unveiled his own blog in May; Edelman CEO David Brain launched his 60-second videoblogs, sixtysecondview.com.

02. Anyone who wasn’t in a blog was on YouTube instead. Bob Leaf, Burson-Marsteller’s septuagenarian former chairman, gave a one-minute speech on how PR had changed in his 50-year career. Even the Government has had a go, posting two short videos on ‘transformational strategy’ and how it was ‘consolidating departments’. And last month, Borkowski PR shunned the usual ‘we’ve relocated’ postcard with a stop-frame animation.

03. But marks for the most inventive blog have to go to Wensleydale Dairy Products, which in September produced a blog to raise support for a campaign to protect the origins of Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Cheese. The blog was created by Green Communications, after Wensleydale received its Protected Designation of Origin mark, which protects EU foods based on their geographical area of production

PR Week’s policy on outbound links appears to be entirely random as Tony’s PR Voice blog and David’s sixtysecondview.com both get links but my Bob Leaf video, Green’s Wensleydale blog, the government, Borkowski, Novell and Fleishman-Hillard don’t. The rest of the article is riddled with the same inconsistencies, which make it much to follow anything up.

Stuart Bruce

Award-winning international public relations adviser and trainer specialising in digital corporate communications, online PR,digital public affairs and social media. Author, media commentator, university lecturer and conference speaker.